Loek Hartog does not want to be called a hero. That much is clear from every answer he gives about the afternoon he abandoned his own race in Shanghai to pull a rival driver out of a burning Ferrari. Whether the sport agrees with his modesty is another matter entirely, because what Hartog describes is a safety gap that motorsport has apparently been happy to live with until a camera caught it in the worst possible circumstances.
The Dutchman was competing in the China GT Championship when Ollie Millroy’s Ferrari crashed and caught fire. Hartog stopped his own car, extinguished the flames around the wreckage and dragged the British driver clear. Millroy has since said he owes his life to Hartog, calling it an act of bravery he will remember for the rest of his life. Hartog, for his part, would rather talk about what needs to change than about what he did.
‘It Was Just One Minute’
Speaking on the Sky Sports F1 Show podcast, Hartog gave his fullest account yet of those few seconds that have since been watched, replayed and dissected across the paddock and beyond.
“Mostly the images will speak for itself. I think everybody at least has seen it once at this point. It was very short, it was just one minute but it also shows how one minute can have such an impact on a community like ours.” – Loek Hartog
He explained why he had kept quiet in the days immediately afterwards, despite footage of the rescue spreading fast.
“And just very thankful for it getting the attention, and that’s also first and foremost the reason why I’m here. I’ve been quite silent after the incident, because first and foremost, I respect Ollie’s safety and Ollie’s health and how he’s doing. It’s been a bit of a rollercoaster ever since. I would like to use the momentum it has to make sure something like this doesn’t happen again.” – Loek Hartog
He is also visibly uncomfortable with the word “hero”, insisting that what he did should be the baseline reaction, not the exceptional one.
“I’m not really the kind of person that likes to come across or talk about these things as a heroic act, because for me, it feels like something that everybody should do, or at least after seeing this, is inspired to act in the same way.” – Loek Hartog
That framing matters. Hartog isn’t fishing for praise, he’s using the attention as leverage. If a driver has to explain that pulling someone out of a fire “should” be normal, then the sport’s actual safety net for that scenario clearly isn’t as normal as it should be.
Staying in Touch, and Feeling Responsible
Hartog has kept in contact with Millroy’s recovery through his wife, and the details he shared paint a more unsettling picture than the footage alone ever could.
“I’m really a lot in touch with his wife, and super, super happy for her to be the person that’s on the other side of the line, because I feel extremely responsible, of course. It’s not clear from the images, but I think by now it’s kind of publicly known that he was conscious whilst it happened, but he was unaware or disoriented. He lost his memory up to 1.5 hours after the accident.” – Loek Hartog
A driver conscious but disoriented inside a burning car, unable to help himself, is precisely the scenario that should terrify anyone who has ever strapped into a race seat. Hartog clearly feels the weight of it.
“And I feel super responsible, because for sure, this has a long-lasting impact. We can talk about this, but once he gets back behind the wheel, if he does at all… I mean, it’s a dramatic event for him and especially hard to paint a picture, which he’s not able to do by himself. And that’s where I feel like I need to come in.” – Loek Hartog
He also described the strange bond that has formed between two men who, before the crash, were simply competitors on the same grid.
“It’s amazing how somebody you haven’t known 72 hours ago… How connected you can feel. We really do now, and we feel like a team. It’s quite, quite special.” – Loek Hartog
A Problem the Sport Has ‘Not Sorted’
This is where Hartog’s account stops being a personal reflection and starts reading like a pointed message to race organisers everywhere. He is adamant that the crash has exposed an unresolved hole in motorsport safety: what happens when a driver is trapped and unable to extract themselves.
“I hope that this moment can be responsible for finding a solution of where somebody’s unconscious or unable to get himself out of a car in case of a fire, we need to find a solution for that as a sport together. Many things we have sorted, this we have not.” – Loek Hartog
He drew a direct contrast between the big international enduros he and Millroy both compete in, where resources and marshal response are stronger, and the feeder categories that make up the sport’s foundation.
“Ollie and I are both professionals. We have been competing at events like Le Mans, we have been competing at events like 24 Hours Nurburgring. In these bigger events, you have more safety, more marshals, better facilities to react to situations like this. But also as a sport, we exist because we have feeder series. We have series like F4, like Carrera Cup, like MX-5 Cup, series which prepare the next drivers. And if we have the same standards of safety as in F1, I mean, the access to the sport would also not be possible.” – Loek Hartog
That last point is uncomfortable but honest. Nobody seriously expects a grassroots series to fund F1-level marshal deployment and medical infrastructure at every event, the costs simply don’t stack up. But Hartog isn’t asking for that. He’s asking for someone, anyone, to actually solve the specific problem of an incapacitated driver trapped in a fire, rather than treating driver intervention as the informal backup plan.
“So I think we, as a community, need to gather and we need to find a solution for specifically this problem. And then we can get better from this.” – Loek Hartog
He was equally clear that he doesn’t think fellow competitors should be expected to be the fire brigade, even though he was exactly that on the day.
“It can’t be the responsibility of the drivers, that I agree with. But in this situation where every second counts, it was the way to be as soon as possible at the action, or at the point of where I needed to be. I’m just glad I did in this case, and didn’t rely on track marshaling. But of course, that’s where we need to head as a sport.” – Loek Hartog
The Uncomfortable Truth Behind the Praise
Every quote here dodges the word “hero” and lands instead on “solution”, “sorted” and “responsibility”. That’s not false modesty, it’s a driver pointing out, as politely as he can, that his own quick reaction shouldn’t have been the deciding factor between Millroy walking away and something far worse. Praise Hartog all you like, and he has earned every bit of it, but the real story is that the margin between a terrifying crash and a fatal one came down to a fellow competitor’s instincts rather than a system built to catch exactly this failure. Until that changes, the next fireball won’t come with the guarantee that someone like Hartog happens to be nearby.
